


The Stockboy In The Easter Aisle

by MacBeth13



Series: Twitterpated Series [1]
Category: Castle
Genre: Case Fic, Chaptered, Easter, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-17
Updated: 2011-04-22
Packaged: 2017-11-06 08:51:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/417023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MacBeth13/pseuds/MacBeth13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The team gets a new case, a murder in a super-store that brings along some of the upcoming holiday's distractions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've been working on this one for a bit now I work in retail and this started as a drabble(way beyond drabble status now) because of a real converstion amongst co-workers and myself as we set the Easter aisle in our store in March. I hope to have the story fully posted by Easter *crosses fingers*(I hand write then type up later, so it's the typing that needs to be done). I should mention that the chocolate rabbits mentioned here-in are a real product made by Palmer confectionaries. Creme eggs are by Cadbury(obviously). The jellybeans are made by Brachs. ;)  
> Disclaimer: The characters belong to abc, the story is mine written for the amusement of anyone who might read it and my own.

  
  


* * * *

 

The body of a young man has been left stuffed haphazardly into a shopping cart, his head severely disfigured and caked with blood. Medical Examiner Lanie Parish is doing a preliminary examination of the body while Detectives Ryan and Esposito along with writer and sidekick Richard Castle look about the scene. The middle of an aisle in a store is different from the usual back alley or someone’s office or apartment that they usually get called to for a murder.

“Do you think it’s kind of poetic that the stock boy was left in one of the shopping carts he pushed around everyday?” Ryan asked Castle and Esposito, making Lanie roll her eyes.

“Nah, dude, I just think it’s sad,” Esposito told his partner.

“You know what I don’t get,” Castle said as he studied the trail of blood droplets on the white tile floor of the super shopping centre, “why bother pushing him inside? Why leave him in this aisle of all places?” he gestured at the product on the shelves. They were standing in the store’s Easter candy aisle.

“Dunno, man,” Ryan said looking at the PDQ cases containing bags of multi-coloured jellybeans.

“Maybe it’s to send a message. Maybe the Easter Bunny did it because the stock boy was a non-believer,” Castle surmised in his over-dramatic voice of doom. All that earned him was a sigh and an eye roll from Beckett as she walked up after finishing her interview with the store manager. “Let me guess, you didn’t believe in the Easter Bunny either? No Santa, no Easter Bunny, what a sad childhood for you . Better watch out, you could be the next Killer Bunny victim.”

“Castle,” Beckett said in the warning tone she reserved only for him.

“Yeah?”

“Focus.” Ryan and Esposito snickered and smiled at Castle getting chastised.

“Sorry,” Castle paused a beat then, “but it has to mean something, you have to admit this is a weird place for a drop.” He was like an excited terrier.

“Not really,” Beckett pointed to the ceiling where there was a security camera with her pen then at a pole that acted as a support beam that was in the middle of the aisle, “that pole creates a blind spot in the security cameras.”

“Oh.”

“Lanie, any guess on time of death?”

“Based on body temp and lividity, I’d say somewhere between ten and midnight.”

“That fits with the guy’s work scheduling. Overnight manager said Miguel, here, worked four to one. The time clock shows he punched in on time at four p.m. and out at eight for meal break, back in again an hour later then he never punched out at the end of his shift,” Esposito told them reading off of his notepad.

“Make sure you get copies of all the security cams’ footage,” Beckett told Ryan and Esposito.

“Already on it, store’s asset protection associate is making copies of the camera vids as we speak,” Ryan told her.

“Good work,” Beckett told both of them and they smiled like students who had just won a prize from their teacher in the way they usually did when they got praise from her for anticipating what needed to be done. Beckett turned around to see Castle looking at the chocolate rabbits.

“Can you believe these things?” he pointed at the chocolate rabbits called ‘Diva’ and ‘Dude’. The ‘Dude’ rabbit was wearing a yellow chocolate medallion and baggy clothes and making a gangsta-rap hand gesture. The ‘Diva’ rabbit was wearing a candy necklace, the box printed with pink leopard print giving it a Jersey Shore feel. “Heh, it’s a pimp and his ho,” Castle said pointing at the rabbits again. Beckett tried not to smile but he kind of had a point.

“They themed this aisle wrong,” Ryan said, head-nodding at Castle’s rabbits.

“Yeah,” Esposito said picking up his partner’s thread, “the ‘Dude’ should be over there next to his Peeps,” he pointed to the marshmallow and sugar birds. Ryan and Esposito did the ’feed the bird’ gesture. Lanie smiled and shook her head. Beckett noticed another type of chocolate rabbit called the ‘Texter’ bunny holding a chocolate mobile phone.

“Hey look, Castle, it’s you,” she pointed at it smiling mischievously.

“Nah, if it was me he’d be texting ‘DRATW’,” Castle said inspecting the rabbit closely. Beckett rolled her eyes at him and went over to Lanie and the body.

“Say what now?” Esposito was confused.

“Double Rainbow All The Way,” Castle said as if it was obvious.

“What does that even mean?” Ryan was just as confused as Esposito.

“It loses something if you have to explain it, just ask my tweeps,” Castle told them.

“Right, well how about we come back to working this young man’s murder?” Beckett prompted, ever the voice of reason.

“We’ll, ah, just be going outside and see if we can pick up the blood trail again,” Esposito said chucking a thumb over his shoulder. Lanie and her crew were preparing the body for its trip to the morgue.

“The store manager said he’d have the overnight shift gather at the back of the store so we can ask them questions,” Beckett said then she led the way to the back of the large store, leaving the uniforms to keep the crime scene contained and Lanie and her team to deal with the body. As Beckett walked she talked, filling Castle in on what little info she had gleaned from the store manager. “The store closes for business at midnight and normally re-opens in the morning at six. Lanie’s estimated time of death means the killer could be a worker or a customer. It’s still March so the Easter merchandise wouldn’t be shopped too hard yet. Killer probably thought, quite accurately, that it might be a while before someone discovered the victim. Using the pole for a camera block helped too.”

“No one just looked down the aisle?”

“Shopping cart was covered with a blanket when the body was found. An early associate was taking care of returns and drops and discovered the body thinking it was an abandoned returns cart. She looked under the blanket and…,” she made a gesture that said ‘you know the rest’.

“Well, it was a drop…a body drop.”

“Yeah. Anyway, calming her down long enough to talk to her earlier wasn’t easy.”

“So we’re hoping one of the associates saw someone bring in a shopping cart with a body in it covered with a blanket?”

“Yeah, long-shot, I know. I’m hoping someone saw something, anything, suspicious,” Beckett said as they finally made it all the way to the back of the store. A restless group of store workers waited for them.

What they got out of the group wasn’t much. No one saw who brought the carriage in. Most of the late night shoppers looked suspicious or weird so singling one out of the crowd that might be the killer wasn’t going to happen.

“The blood trail was partially cleaned up, didn’t anyone notice it before that, and who did clean it?” Castle asked.

“Seeing a blood droplet trail around here, unfortunately, isn’t that uncommon. You’d be surprised how many times a package of meat leaks or a customer gets a bloody nose or an associate gets a deep cut from cardboard or their box-cutter,” the store manager explained.

“Who cleaned it?” Beckett repeated the question. After some whispers an older gentleman raised his hand.

“Did you follow the trail to clean it?” Beckett asked. The older man looked to a co-worker standing next to him and his friend translated the question to him in Russian. When the older man answered in Russian Beckett held up her hand in a staying motion before the friend took the time to translate to English what she already understood. The man had explained that he used a Zamboni type machine to clean the floors, working the aisles like the driver of a street cleaner.

“And you didn’t get up to the aisle where the body was?” Beckett asked in Russian.

“We are short handed this week. One maintenance worker is on holiday, another is out sick. I had to prioritize and clean only the high-traffic aisles,” he told her in his own language.

She thanked him and then switched back to English to thank the rest of the workers. The store manager dismissed the associates then waited for them to disperse. It didn’t take long. Beckett thanked the manager for cooperating and then got contact information. The AP associate came out and gave her the copies of the security camera footage. After that Castle and Beckett headed back to the front of the store. They checked in with the CSU guys in the Easter aisle to make sure nothing new was found.

“Ooh, I have to get some Cadbury Crème Eggs for Alexis. If she finds out I saw them and didn’t buy her some, some form of physical and/or mental torturing will be involved,” Castle pleaded with his eyes. The crème eggs weren’t inside the zone taped off by CSU so Beckett nodded an okay. She didn’t expect Castle to buy more than the Cadbury eggs but she supposed she should have given his habit of compulsive buying. While she was waiting she spied some speckled jellybeans, grabbed the bag, handed them and a dollar bill to pay for them to Castle and told him she’d be outside with Ryan and Esposito. No sense in having them both wait in line to cash out, she figured, plus she was on the clock. Beckett threw a little sashay into her hips just in case Castle was watching. Just as she was turning out of the aisle she looked back and saw he was, indeed, watching. She gave him a glare and he looked away, head down like a puppy dog in trouble. She walked on and smiled, sometimes she found the games they played fun, a little cruel to him, but fun.

Outside the store Ryan and Esposito were looking at an area of the parking lot near a carriage corral.

“What put that smile on your face?” Esposito asked when she was a yard or two away.

“Huh? Oh, uh, just one of those witty T-shirts in the store,” Beckett lied.

Even before she walked up close Beckett could see blood spatter on the asphalt and on the metal cross-beam of the corral.

“I’m gonna run in and give the CSU guys a heads-up,” Ryan told them. Beckett took up his place guarding the crime scene.

“Where’s Castle?” Esposito asked her.

“He wanted to buy a few things.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Esposito’s rhetorical came with a smile.

Almost as if on cue Castle emerged from the store, shopping bag in hand. He watched Ryan whiz by him then Castle gave Beckett and Esposito a quizzical look.

“The guys found the murder site,” Beckett said when he got close enough for her to use a non-carrying voice.

“So I have a theory,” Castle stated after looking at the blood splatter. Beckett and Esposito rolled their eyes in a ‘oh, here we go again’ expression. “The killer, in a jealous rage, comes up behind Miguel and whacks him on the back of the head and then the front of his noggin hit’s the bar right there,” he pointed at the carriage corral.

“Leave out the jealous rage part, which is strictly conjecture, and I think you’ve got a good theory,” Beckett told him.

Ryan came back out of the store with a few of the CSU guys and a couple of uniforms. One of the CSU guys gave a preliminary based on the blood spatter that supported Castle’s ‘from behind’ theory but they wouldn’t know for sure until Lanie checked the head wounds during the autopsy.

“In the meantime,” Beckett said to her guys, “we can get started on background of our vic and start reviewing the security cam footage.” She saw Ryan’s frame physically slump at the mention of the security tape reviewing; he seemed to be doing a lot of that lately. She decided to take pity on him. “Why don’t you two take the background check, Castle and I will start going over the camera footage back at the precinct.” She handed Esposito the contact info she had on Miguel Garza’s next of kin.

“Right,” Esposito said taking the paper then he and Ryan left in their car. Beckett and Castle left in hers. They stopped by his loft to drop off Alexis’ eggs and to grab Castle’s laptop. He also paid for two coffees and danishes from the usual café that they had to drive past anyway to get to the precinct. The early morning phone call had made getting them earlier impossible. They would at least have had caffeine and breakfast before burning their retinas staring at computer screens.  



	2. Chapter 2

 

Back at the precinct Beckett and Castle were huddled at her desk. Castle used his laptop to watch security footage on it. Beckett popped in a disc on her desk computer. Castle got the outside cam footage and Beckett the inside. There were a lot of people to sift through but so far there was no sign of the victim or anyone suspicious. She got up to the time Miguel would have started his shift and saw him walk into camera range going into the store and then a little after four he walked back out wearing a neon vest, just time enough for him to punch in, grab his gear, then walk back up front. She paused the video and rubbed her eyes then pulled out her bag of jellybeans and poured them into the bowl on her desk. She picked out a few of the blue ones as they were her favourite and offered the bowl to Castle. He absentmindedly grabbed a few, not taking his eyes from his screen. Beckett went back to her own vid. She kept eating the jellybeans every now and again, not really paying any mind to them and concentrating on the video, that is until she ate a purple one. She made a face and contemplated spitting the bean out.

“Ugh,” Beckett paused her vid so she could take a drink of her now rather cold coffee just to rinse out the taste.

“What was that about?” Castle asked, his own video paused.

“The purple jellybeans, I think they’re supposed to be grape but they kinda taste like soap.”

“Really?” Castle sounded intrigued and a little excited. Beckett picked another purple bean out of the dish and handed it to him. He ate it and unsurprisingly was not disgusted. “That is so weird!” he said with childlike fascination. He picked another purple bean out of the bowl.

“Castle?”

“Hmm?”

“When you were younger did you have a pleasant experience with a bar of soap in your mouth?”

Castle choked on the jellybean, “why, eh-hem, what makes you ask that?”

“You seem to always be pleased to find candy that tastes like soap.”

“Oh, well, I-I don’t know. I had a babysitter who used to make me hold a bar of Palmolive in my mouth every time I took the Lord’s name in vain, which, decidedly, was a lot, but trust me it was not a pleasant experience.”

Imagining Castle as a little boy with a bar of soap in his mouth like Ralphie from A Christmas Story wasn’t too hard to do. The mental image made her smile.

“I bet you were a hand-full when you were younger.”

“I was curious and a little mischievous and had a potty mouth, yes, but I stayed out of trouble most of the time.”

“Because you kept your nose clean or because you didn’t get caught?”

“The former…mostly,” he said and she laughed, “the rest of the time I could usually charm my way out of trouble.”

“Now that I believe.”

“Are you saying you find me charming, Detective?”

“I-” she couldn’t think of a verbal response so she chucked a jellybean at him and it hit him on the shoulder. She went back to her vid-watching and risked a side glance at Castle. She caught him still watching her with a grin on his face. Beckett waited a few beats then glanced over again, Castle was still watching her. She paused her video and gave him a pointed glare. Castle went back to his video but he kept his smile. Beckett un-paused her own and she found one of the problems of watching video with no sound was that it allowed one’s thoughts to wander; her mind kept going back to the thought of Castle as a little boy and how cute he must have been.

That thought, of course, led her to think of how adorable his kids would be, Alexis being a prime example, but she was thinking more specifically of a little boy. A little mini-Castle. Castle would probably be just as excited to play with the toys as his son would be. She could just picture Castle and his non-existing (yet) son sitting on the floor playing, both dressed smartly, both with the same hair and the same impish smile; the one that always melted her heart whether she showed it or not. So clearly could she imagine that little boy that it made her ovaries hurt a little.

Beckett sighed in exasperation at herself that she had let her mind wander so far out-field. She reached her hand back into the bowl of jellybeans. She put the purple ones off to the side of the desk for Castle and she noticed he had already started doing the same thing for her with the blue ones. When had he noticed those were the ones she preferred?

They both time-stamped the vic going in and out for his first fifteen minute break but Beckett and Castle didn’t really converse much with each other for a while, so intent were they in their vid reviewing. After a bit of a spell Castle tapped her elbow, “I’ve got Miguel doing some pretty interesting things other than pushing carriages.”

“Like what?” Beckett asked pausing her vid and turning her attention to Castle’s

“Look what he does here,” Castle backed the video up and pointed to Miguel Garza on the screen. A car pulled up and Garza chatted with the driver through the window. After a few minutes he reached into his pocket and handed something to the driver and pocketed what the driver handed to him in exchange.

“He was dealing from the parking lot,” Beckett stated.

“Mmmhmm, and getting quite the business, I might add. This is the third deal he’s taken so far.”

“Can you make out any of the plate numbers?”

“No, it’s too small and too fuzzy for me to read but I wrote down the times for the CSU tech guys, maybe they can enhance it.”

“Good work,” she told him and Castle preened.

The security cameras showed them Garza going to take lunch break and an hour later going back outside. He pushed carts on Castle’s video for a while. Beckett’s video showed some colourful characters but nothing of the killer and nothing of a more serious criminal nature other than petty theft. Ryan and Esposito came back into the precinct silently and so intent in their reviewing were Castle and Beckett they did not notice the duo.

“Four,” Castle muttered to Beckett, his chin resting in his hand.

“‘Four’ what?” Ryan asked making Castle jump.

“Oh, hey, guys,” Beckett said pausing her screen and looking up at them. “Find anything?”

“Parents didn’t really know of anything wrong in their son’s life. They’d had dinner with Miguel over the weekend but they said he seemed fine, happy. No outward appearance of being nervous or anxious about anything. But get this, they did say they weren’t overly fond of some of the friends in the crowd Miguel hung out with,” Esposito reported.

“They gave us a list of some of his friends numbers and the address of a few of his ex-girlfriends, who live in the same building, by the way. We stopped by and talked to them. There were no hard feelings and all three women were upset upon learning of Garza’s death. They all pretty much said the same thing, that Miguel had broke it off but that they’d wished they’d had more time with him,” Ryan said, not sure if the girls were to be believed or not.

“So what’s ‘four’?” Esposito asked Castle.

“Well, Miguel was a very social guy and I’ll bet that the friends his parents didn’t particularly like were his customers and the kingpin he was dealing for.”

“Dude was dealing?” Esposito asked as he came around to look at Castle’s laptop screen.

“Right from the parking lot,” Castle indicated Garza on his screen leaning into yet another car window.

“You guys, check his cell phone records. Run any numbers that come up frequently,” Beckett told them.

“Right,” Esposito said and was about to go to his own desk when Ryan tapped him on the elbow and pointed at Beckett’s desk.

“What, ah…what’s with the blue and purple jellybeans?” Ryan asked.

“Beckett likes the blue ones.”

“Castle likes the purple ones.”

“They taste like soap.”

“So you guys are picking out each other’s favourites?” Ryan asked with a grin.

“That’s kinda adorable,” Esposito told them, mirroring his partner’s grin.

Beckett gave them both a glare that promised bodily harm if they didn’t get to work on the phone records ASAP. Both detectives walked to Esposito’s desk in the back, still grinning. Beckett went back to her camera video watching but she could still feel Ryan and Esposito’s mocking glares at her back. A quick look at Castle showed her that he was biting his lip to try to stop himself from smiling.

“Oh, ouch!” Castle exclaimed a while later.

“You’ve got the murder in your camera?”

“Yeah, killer came right up behind him and whacked him on the head. I was right about the carriage corral, too.” Castle backed up the footage so Beckett could watch.

“You can’t see the killer’s face. What’s the time stamp when they go inside?” she asked after they watched the killer hoist the limp body of Miguel into a shopping cart then cover both with the blanket. Castle gave Beckett the time and she moved her own video up to catch the killer coming into the store. The killer was wearing a dark hoodie and kept their head down the whole time. They also wore gloves and the same kind of work boots half the store wore. “Damn!” she said exasperated, “even going back out they never look up. What about once they get outside?”

“No, head down the entire time they’re in camera range. It’s like they knew where all the cameras were.”

“Public area, wouldn’t be to hard to scope the place.”

“So this was definitely premeditated, you know, just in case bringing along the blanket wasn’t already an indication.”

“Yo, Beckett!” Esposito called from his desk.

“Please tell me you guys have something?” Beckett sauntered over to Esposito’s desk.

“One of the numbers on Garza’s phone records belongs to a Dennis Molena. He’s been picked up a few times for possession and intent to distribute. Bet he’s the one the one Miguel’s been dealing for or he knows who the kingpin is.”

“You got an address?”

“Yup,” Ryan said pulling the paperwork off of the printer and holding it up like a golden ticket.

 

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So, just in case anyone wants to try them, the jellybeans are Brachs speckled jelly bird eggs. To get the full soap flavour eat a yellow jellybean first then the purple jellybean. I thought it was just my tastebuds that were off but I used my writing group girls as a taste-test group and it was agreed all around that they really do kinda taste like soap. I'm one of the weird ones that, like Castle, kinda like it. ;)


	3. The Stockboy In The Easter Aisle - Chapter 3

An hour later Beckett and her team busted down the door to Dennis Molena’s apartment. She let Castle come up with them on the thought that in that neighbourhood he’d be safer by her side than alone down on the street in the car; that and she was tired of hearing him whine. They had caught a lucky break that a neighbour, willing to cooperate, said they remembered seeing Molena return home and not leave again. The neighbour failed to mention he had a girl with him and when they rushed into the apartment they caught Molena with his pants down…literally.

“Ahhh, I think my eye-balls are scarred for life!” Castle complained, pressing the heels of his palms to his offended eyes, as uniforms tossed Molena in the back of a black-and-whiter for the trip to the precinct.

“You were the one who wanted to come along and not stay in the car, Castle, not to mention jumping into the room before I gave you the all clear signal,” Beckett told him as she opened her car door.

“Moon river…” Ryan sang as he walked by Castle to get to his and Esposito’s vehicle.

“…Wider than a mile,” Esposito sang the next lyrics on his way by. Beckett snickered as she got behind the wheel and watched Castle show Ryan and Esposito a couple of different kind of birds.

“You’re awfully quiet,” she remarked after a few moments of driving and Castle had not spoken, an unusual feat for him.

“Just thinking.”

“About?”

“How many songs do you think those two know about people’s asses?”

“Lots. And if they run out of ideas I’ll be sure to feed them mine,” she told him with a sassy smile.

“Thanks. Really.”

“No, prob.”

Back at the precinct Castle suffered through a round of Blue Moon. Lanie called and told Beckett that what Miguel had been hit over the head with was a four-sided tire iron. Dennis Molena was sitting in interrogation and after he’d stewed for a bit Beckett went in with Esposito. Castle went with Ryan to observation, Molena might find it easier to connect with Esposito and Castle was more than willing to keep a pane of glass between himself and the man whose bare ass he’d seen too much of. Molena stayed pretty uncooperative until Beckett played her usual card.

“The truth is, Molena, I don’t really give a crap about your drugs. Those charges are not up to me. What does concern me is murder,” she watched Molena for a reaction and got it. Molena flicked his gaze from the table he had been fixated upon up to her face and then back to the table again. “Miguel Garza.”

“Miguel ain’t never killed nobody!”

“I never said he did.”

“Then who you accusin’ of murder?”

Beckett looked at Molena with her sharp glare.

“No way, lady! Okay, so I make some cash on the side, y’know, but I ain’t never killed nobody! Whoever you think I killed, I didn’t!”

“Tell that to Miguel,” Esposito told him and slapped the picture of Miguel’s body on the table.

“Miguel…Miguel’s dead?!” Molena’s reaction seemed genuinely surprised and saddened but it could be an act. Some suspects should be nominated for Emmy’s, Beckett had thought more than once.

“You wanna tell us why you decided to bash your ‘friend’ Miguel over the head?” Esposito tapped the photo so Molena would look at it again. He didn’t answer but he did look a little green-faced.

“Are the CSU guys going to find a tire iron in your car, Mr. Molena?” Beckett asked an easy question to answer, the kind the DA’s office liked because they built cases.

“Yeah, I mean, you gotta be prepared for emergencies, y’know?”

“We going to find blood on that tire iron?”

“Is that what did this?” Molena pointed at Miguel’s picture looking sickened. Beckett nodded once. “Look, I already told you I didn’t do it. Why would I?”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe a deal went sour, maybe Miguel crossed you at some point…” Esposito tossed out a few plausibles.

“I didn’t kill Miguel, had no reason to. Miguel was my best worker, in a prime spot. He brought in more cash than most of my guys on the streets. Why would I kill off the one guy making me the most?”

“Where were you last night at around 10:45?” Beckett asked.

“I was at the club in a back booth runnin’ my business.”

“What club?” Esposito demanded.

“Ella, on 9th. I was there, the bartender and the doorman will remember seeing me. I bet that place has me on camera too,” Molena nodded emphatically.

“We’ll be checking on it, Mr. Molena,” Beckett said picking up her papers and the pictures. When her and Esposito walked out Molena was cradling his head in his hands.

 

 

Molena’s alibi checks out,” Ryan said hanging up his phone thirty minutes later. “Owner remembers seeing him a few times in the club and makes note of Molena whenever he comes in hoping to catch him in the act of dealing so that Molena could be banned from the club. Owner was more than willing to cooperate and is prepared to give us a viewing of the club’s security footage from last night. Said that they finally got that caught-in-the-act footage they’d been seeking. Great for narcotics to have more evidence to prove Molena was dealing but not so great for us.”

“Not for Molena either, though I suppose a drug dealing charge is better than a murder charge,” Castle mused aloud.

Beckett was hanging some printouts of the killer from the store’s security camera footage onto the murder board, writing a question mark next to them and then moved Molena’s picture out of the suspect category.

“There’s got to be something we’re missing,” Beckett said, steeping back to survey the murder board the way she usually did when working the case’s details over in her head. “Did we have any more interesting hits on the phone records?” she asked Esposito.

“Just the ex-girlfriends we talked to and his parents were repetitive numbers. There were a few co-workers’ numbers but they weren’t called or were incoming calls with any level of regularity.”

“What about any of Miguel’s customers? Any of them have a beef with him?”

“Dude was dealing straight marijuana only, good quality stuff but not laced with anything and he didn’t deal any other substances. Potheads are usually a mellow crowd but I’ll check with Molena, see if any of Miguel’s clients were particularly aggressive,” Esposito told her. Beckett nodded her approval to him.

“While you guys check on that Castle and I will go back to the store,” Beckett said checking her watch, “the four-to-one crew should be showing up for work soon.” She saw Ryan check his own watch then make his worried, eyebrows puckered expression. “Call me if you get anything from Molena; after that you guys are free for the night, I guess.”

“Thanks,” Ryan said breathing a sigh of relief, “I kinda have dinner plans with Jenny, I didn’t want to have to cancel.”

“Might happen a lot in the future, better she get used to it now, bro.”

“She understands the demands of my job. You ever think maybe it was because I was looking forward to tonight that I didn’t want to cancel?’

“Yeah. Right,” Esposito said in dry disbelief.

“Well it is,” Ryan whined a little when he was put on the defensive.

“Whatever you say, honey-milk,” Esposito said turning to leave and, his back to his partner, winked and smiled at Beckett. She smiled and shook her head. The teasing of one another amongst her team was a strange show of affection, but if the teasing wasn’t there it meant that something was wrong.  



	4. The Stockboy In The Easter Aisle - Chapter 4

On the way back to the super-shopping centre Beckett and Castle got stuck in early afternoon traffic. Castle opened up a bag of Robin’s Egg malts from the loot he had bought in the morning.

“You’re gonna give your self sugar shock,” she told him, hating how her voice sounded motherly but he seemed to bring that voice out of her a lot.

“I’m hungry, all we had for lunch was coffee and jellybeans,” he complained then offered her some of the candy, holding it out in an open-faced palm. At first she wasn’t going to take it but he kept holding them out so she gave in and took a couple.

“So you didn’t believe in the Easter Bunny,” Castle stated after a few minutes of silence, going back to the conversation from earlier that morning. “It must be so weird to have missed out on Easter egg hunts.”

“Oh, I still had that,” Beckett said with a nostalgic smile. Castle put down the malts and looked at her giving her his full attention that made it clear he wanted to know more. “My mom always made Easter. She’d hide a whole bunch of eggs that I’d have to find. She’d even hide my Easter basket. I used to love the Easter baskets she made up for me. She always made sure to hide extra jellybeans and chocolates under the fake grass. As I got older she got and more and more clever about where to hide the eggs and the basket. Then after the hunt we’d have cinnamon rolls with orange icing for breakfast. We’d watch the Easter parade together then I’d help her cook a huge dinner, we always had ham leftover for the freezer. I thought maybe at some age she’d think I was too old to hunt for eggs but she never did. She always made Easter, even after I graduated from high school.”

“I’m glad she made it special for you.”

“Me too,” Beckett still had the soft smile but there was trace of the pain in her eyes she always had when talking about her mom. “What about you? What family tradition do you have with Alexis?”

“Well, we decorate and dye real eggs the night before Easter and the first few years I hid those the next morning as the Easter Bunny for Alexis to find. When she got older and I started hiding them in earnest we had to switch over to the plastic eggs. That was after one unfortunate Easter where I hid some of the real eggs too well and she couldn’t find them and one of them I couldn’t remember where I hid it. We found it a week later; the smell was not pleasant, trust me.” Beckett laughed at Castle’s story and he smiled at the sound. “You know, you should join us this year for the egg decorating. We each get a dozen to decorate then mother, who doesn’t decorate for fear of dyeing her hands, judges which ones are the best. The person with the most eggs in the top five gets a special reward, on me of course. Usually dinner at the winner’s choice of a restaurant or a movie viewing at the cinema. What d’ya say?”

“I…I don’t know, Castle.”

“Why not, it’d be fun?”

“It’s a family thing, for one-”

“You’re practically family anyway, so that’s not a good enough reason,” Castle said and Beckett gave him a double-take look then gripped the steering wheel a little bit tighter.

“Maybe it’s something Alexis likes sharing with just you. Is this a tradition you let, oh, say, Gina participate in?”

“No, not because she wasn’t invited but it wasn’t exactly something Gina liked doing because it was…” Castle struggled for the right word.

“Fun,” Beckett supplied.

“Exactly. So if Alexis says yes, will you?”

“I don’t know, Castle, I’ll think about it,” she told him. She had a strong suspicion he wasn’t going to let her say no. He’d pester her until she had no choice but to acquiesce.

When they got to the super-store they met again with the store manager. It was just before four o’clock and not all of the four-to-one shifters had punched in yet. The store manager promised to have everyone assembled at the back of the store by four fifteen. Beckett chose to grab something to eat from the store’s deli while they waited. Castle grabbed a cup of popcorn chicken. It wasn’t a full meal but it would give them better fuel to run on than jellybeans and malted eggs.

They asked the four-to-one workers the same questions they had asked the overnight shift: had anyone seen anything, did Miguel mention anything being wrong, all the usual fact finding questions. They got diddley-squat.

“I’m sorry my people couldn’t be more helpful, Detective,” the store manager said in earnest.

“Did you know Miguel was dealing drugs out of your parking lot?”

“He what?”

“He had quite the client load,” Castle said knowing the manager had heard Beckett but wasn’t believing it.

“Miguel was a good kid, everyone liked him. Are you sure?”

“Very. Your own security cameras captured his business.” Beckett was watching the manager carefully.

“I’m, I-I’m just having a hard time believing it. Everyone liked Miguel,” the manager repeated.

“Maybe not everyone,” Castle said nudging Beckett. There was an associate lingering to eavesdrop and, upon Castle’s spotting him, he started to walk away. “He had a funny look on his face when you were talking, I’d call it contempt but you might call that assumption ‘conjecture’.”

Beckett gave Castle a ‘not now’ look then turned to the store manager, “Who is that?”

“Marc McClure, he’s one of our stockmen.”

“So he’d work with Miguel a lot?” Beckett’s question was more statement.

“Yeah, they’d work outside together a lot. They’d each take a side of the parking lot, you know, one gets grocery the other gets GM.”

“I want to talk to him,” Beckett said.

“Sure, I’ll call him in over the walkie,” the manager said reaching for it.

“No, we’ll go out to him,” Beckett said then started walking in the direction McClure had taken. Castle fell into step with her and the store manager scrambled to keep up. McClure was outside gathering carts but he was fidgety and kept looking over his shoulder. He noticed them pretty quickly because of the nervous habit.

“Marc, Detective Beckett would like to ask you a few more questions about Miguel,” the store manager told the young man.

“I, uh, I don’t really know much,” the stockman said looking off to the side, a sure sign he was lying.

“Did you ever notice Miguel doing anything odd?” Beckett started out easy.

“Like what?”

“Like talking to a lot of people out here?” Castle hinted but knew better to say outright ‘dealing’, they wanted that from McClure.

“Yeah, he talked to a lot of people.”

“What kind of people?”

“All kinds.”

“Did you ever see who they were?”

“They stayed in their cars mostly,” he answered Beckett’s questions vaguely.

“You ever talk to Miguel? Did he seem to be acting differently last night?”

“I didn’t really talk to Miguel unless it was work related,” he looked directly at Beckett to answer that question.

“Sounds like you didn’t really get along well?” Castle prodded.

McClure shrugged, “We were co-workers, nothing more, nothing less; different walks of life, y’know?”

“Did you happen to see anyone come up to Miguel that wasn’t in their car?” Beckett asked.

“No.”

“Where were you at ten forty-five last night?”

“I was on my break. We always make sure one of us is on and to take our breaks staggered and separately.”

“Where did you take your break? In the building? In your car?” Beckett watched McClure carefully.

“I, uh, I went to my car,” he said wiping sweat from his eyebrow. That was when Beckett noticed the bruising on McClure’s knuckles.

“What happened to your hand?”

“I-I must’ve hit them on something, it’s a rough job, y’know,” McClure said looking down at his feet.

“Nice sneakers, those the new AirWalks?” Castle asked drawing Beckett’s attention to McClure’s bright white, brand new sneakers.

“Marc, do you know how Miguel was killed?” Beckett asked in a falsely kind voice, the one Castle had heard many times before when she knew she had her perp.

“N-no,” Marc McClure lied inefficiently.

“He was hit over the head repeatedly with a tire iron so hard his skull caved in. His forehead was bashed into the carriage corral with the force of the blows.”

“Not a very pleasant way to die,” Castle picked up Beckett’s tactic, “there must have been blood spatter everywhere.”

“All over the killer’s black hooded sweater and his gloves and all over his shoes,” Beckett fixed her hawk-like glare on McClure.

“Hold on, you’re not suggesting Marc had anything to do with Miguel’s death?!” the store manager said, aghast.

“Seems like a mighty big coincidence that Marc, here, has on a brand new pair of blood-free shoes and has bruising on the same hand the killer wielded the tire iron with. I don’t believe in coincidences. If I search your car, Mr. McClure, am I going to find a four-sided tire iron?” Beckett asked arching her eyebrow.

In response McClure took off running. Beckett was quick to jump into pursuit mode and she could hear Castle’s feet pounding the pavement behind her. She allowed a split second’s regret for not making Ryan and Esposito come along instead of letting them go home. She could have used them in this foot chase to close off escape routes. There wasn’t any time for regretting now, however, and so she concentrated on how to make what she had work.

McClure vaulted over the hood of a car that was looking for a parking spot. Beckett fell behind because the driver couldn’t make up his mind to stay where he was or to continue driving. The driver flipped her off then looked slack-jawed when she un-holstered her gun and Bo Duke-slid across his hood. Castle had caught up to her and she hand signalled him to cross over to the next row of cars.

Beckett willed her legs to move her faster to try and catch back up with McClure. She tried to anticipate where he was headed next. There was a bus parked on the outside edge of the parking lot taking on passengers. McClure could also be trying to make a go for his own vehicle. He took a turn and went over several car rows to get to the side employee parking lot and he had his keys in his hand; so he was going for his own car. Beckett heard the beeping sound of a car and heard an engine start but she didn’t see where McClure’s car was, that it was clear he had a remote starter for. Beckett couldn’t see where Castle had gone either. She spotted McClure’s running vehicle up ahead. A bread vendor truck passed right in front of McClure, blocking his view of his car but he didn’t slow down and tapped the back of the truck with his hand as he ran by. When the truck pulled out of view Beckett saw exactly where Castle ended up. He was already waiting by McClure’s car, panting. He must have cut across the rows of cars having figured out where McClure was headed, and used the bread truck as cover.

Unfortunately for Castle, McClure didn’t slow down at the sight of him. Instead McClure charged at Castle, running toward him like a crazed line-backer. At the last second Castle braced his footing and leaned forward at the waist, putting his shoulder out, and when McClure made contact his own speed ended up working against him. McClure was flipped up and over Castle, feet over head, and he landed with a loud thud on the asphalt flat on his back. McClure lay winded on the ground and Beckett moved in quickly to cuff him, holstering her gun. Castle looked at McClure, surprised that his maneuver had worked.

“Nice move, Castle,” Beckett said still breathing heavily, “where’d you pick that up?”

“Ryan and Esposito were teaching me a few defensive techniques,” Castle explained standing up straight and tried looking more macho.

“Huh,” was her non-committal reply. She took McClure’s car keys and turned off the engine while Castle watched McClure. “Thanks for giving me probable cause to search your vehicle, by the way,” Beckett told McClure then she Mirandized him as she walked him over to her cruiser and stuffed him into the back

Beckett drove her own car over to the employee parking lot. She called in the arrest and also asked for assistance and a tow for McClure’s car. The store manager was there as well as a small crowd of lookey-loos. Her cell rang as she turned off her engine.

“Beckett,” she answered her phone in her usual manner.

“Yo, Beckett, just calling to check-in. Ryan took off for his date. Molena was a bust. Miguel never complained to him about any disgruntled customers. So how are things on your end?”

“Oh, you know, bringing in our killer.”

“For serious?!”

“Uh-huh, about to search his car for the murder weapon and hopefully his bloody clothes too.”

“Did he run?”

“Yeah, and Castle needs to thank you and Ryan for teaching him how to duck and make a human knee-knocker.”

“He used one of the moves we taught him? And it worked?!”

“Mmm.”

“Hah, can’t wait to tell Ryan!”

“Esposito, do not interrupt his date.”

“I wasn’t gonna.”

“Uh-huh,” she said in disbelief and hung up. Beckett pulled out gloves for herself and Castle from her car. The uniform back-up she requested arrived and she had one of them do crowd control while the other watched McClure.

They found the four-sided tire iron but there were no bloody boots or clothes. Beckett made a note for CSU to check for the blanket fibres in the car even though she knew they already would.

They drove back to the precinct and got McClure in for processing. Castle left saying he’d be back in a bit while Beckett was doing the paperwork for the arrest and a search warrant request to search McClure’s residence. As promised Castle returned a little while later with a brown paper bag that was eliciting the most heavenly scent of Chinese food, her favourite.

“I figured we should probably eat something more substantial, thought I’d spring for Chinese,” he said pulling the white cartons out of the bag and handing Beckett a pair of chopsticks.

“Smells good, thanks, Castle.”

“So I called Alexis while I was waiting for the food. She was excited by the idea of having you over for Easter.”

“I thought it was just for egg decorating?” Castle’s response to her was to shovel food into his mouth and shrug his shoulders. “I said I’d think about it if it was okay with her, please don’t get her hopes up, or yours either,” she told him pointed her chopsticks at him in emphasis. Castle nodded but Beckett had a feeling the warning to not get his hopes up was already too late if his impish smile was any indication.

Waiting for the warrant seemed to take forever and since McClure had lawyered-up they didn’t have interrogating him as a distraction. By the time they finally got the warrant Esposito had decided to come back and Ryan had turned up as well after finishing his date with Jenny. The two partners had entered the bullpen singing Baby Got Back by Sir Mix-A-Lot.

“Heh heh, very funny guys,” Castle gave an un-amused fake laugh, “don’t you think it’s getting old?”

Ryan and Esposito looked at each other then back at Castle and said together, “nope.”

 

The team searched McClure’s place from top to bottom. The fact that the man lived like slob didn’t make it easier in the search. There were dirty clothes strewn about the floor, empty take-out containers here and there. Ryan and Esposito carefully sifted through the clothes and debris on the floor. Castle was looking up at the drop ceiling.

“What is it?” Beckett asked closing a drawer, recognizing Castle’s look of being on to something.

“Cobwebs,” he said and she waited for him to continue. “They’re everywhere, there’s dust everywhere except in that corner. Why? It should have cobwebs galore if the rest of this place is any indication.”

“Hand me that chair over there,” Beckett pointed to a hard-backed kitchen chair by McClure’s computer. Standing up on it Beckett carefully lifted the corner ceiling panel. Sure enough, stuffed into shopping bags from the super-store were the black hoodie, the gloves and the work boots that on the surface appeared to be wiped clean. Beckett knew, without a doubt, that CSU would find blood and tissue that McClure had missed.

“Paydirt!” Beckett called out so Ryan and Esposito knew what they were looking for was found. “Call CSU, have them come over here and sweep the place,” she told Esposito.

“Right,” he started dialing.

Beckett decided to let McClure sweat it out for the night at the precinct lock-up. Now that she knew for sure he was the killer and they’d made the case for the DA with evidence the rest was pure curiosity as to why he did it. A confession would be a nice topping to the cake but she doubted his lawyer would ever let it get that far. Only the morning would tell.  



	5. The Stockboy In The Easter Aisle - Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Final chapter in this story. :) Thank you to everyone kind enough to read and leave a review! I'm hoping to have a shorter sequel story posted soon. The tone is going to be a bit different which is why I'm making them separate, that and this case is done and the sequel expands on a future event. This story has been canon friendly straight through, the next story will be more Caskett heavy. ;) Thank you again, hope you enjoy!

 

Beckett was at her desk when Ryan and Esposito came in the next morning. They both looked at the empty chair by her desk.

“Y’think mom and dad are fighting again?” Ryan whispered to Esposito. Beckett pretended she didn’t hear with her best poker-face.

“Where’s ah…where’s Castle?” Esposito asked meandering up to her desk.

“Dunno, he called and said he had something to take care of, said he’d be late.”

“You still planning on interviewing McClure?”

“Yup. Just waiting on his lawyer. If Castle’s not back in time you want to sit in?”

“Sure, no prob.”

Ryan had taken a phone call while they had been talking and he hung up the receiver and joined the pow-wow.

“That was the lab. The blood on the gloves and boots matches the vic.”

“Figured it would,” Beckett commented.

“What I don’t get is why did he hang onto that stuff? He coulda just thrown it in the store’s compactor. Why bring it home and hide it?” Esposito pondered, his arms folded across his chest.

“Souvenirs?” Ryan suggested.

“I don’t know, why don’t we ask him,” Beckett said, head nodding at the doorway, “McClure’s lawyer has arrived.”

The trio of detectives were walking toward interrogation when the doors to the elevator opened spitting out Castle, morning coffee in-hand. Esposito smoothly shifted his direction to go with Ryan to observation. Beckett paused outside interrogation long enough to grab her coffee from Castle, take a few good swigs, and bring him up to speed on everything they had just discussed.

“Can we get this over with, Detective? I have another client I need to be getting to,” the lawyer complained the minute they entered the room.

“Sorry about the delay, Ms. Bixler, I was waiting on a few photos,” Beckett fibbed.

“Well, go ahead and ask your questions. I’ve informed my client not to answer any of them.”

“Mr. McClure, are you aware that your apartment was searched last night?”

“He knows you searched his apartment,” Bixler said but Beckett kept her gaze on McClure.

“Do you know what we found at your place, Marc?” she asked and received stony silence in return. “Do you know what we found hidden above your ceiling panels?” McClure’s shoulders slumped and, when Beckett started flipping over the evidence pictures of the hoodie, the boots and finally, the blood and brain-matter stained gloves, McClure started to cry.

“What is this?” the lawyer demanded.

“The items your client was wearing when he bashed in Miguel Garza’s skull,” Castle said bluntly.

“Did it make you feel better, to finally be able to release all the anger and frustration you felt?” Beckett said in a low tone. She watched McClure as he started rubbing his forehead, raking his fingers through his hair. Bixler reminded him not to respond or answer any questions. “How long were you planning to kill Miguel?”

“That’s it, this interview is over,” Bixler said standing up, her chair grating against the floor.

“What did Miguel do that made you feel he deserved this?” Beckett got in one more question before Bixler could drag her client away. For good measure Beckett threw a picture of Miguel on the table, the crime scene close-up photo from CSU wasn’t pretty. McClure bowed his head and put his face in his hands.

“Nothing,” McClure mumbled quietly into his hands he had covering his face. A moment of strained silence passed in the interrogation room. “Nothing!” McClure cried. “He did nothing! Everyday I got stuck having to do twice as much work because he was out there dealing drugs when he should have been working. He never did much of anything when it came to the job. No one ever caught on ‘cause everybody liked Miguel, ‘he’s such a great guy’,” McClure spit out, his voice full of contempt. “Anytime they saw a good job was being done out there they thanked Miguel, Miguel! Never me! Never the one really doing the work! So many times I’d wish someone would notice, that they’d see what he was doing. I even reported it to our manager,” he laughed bitterly, “know what happened? Nothing. Stupid me failed to realize our manager was buying from Miguel. How is that right? No…no, it needed to stop, the cycle needed to stop, I made it stop,” McClure said rocking in his chair, holding his chest, tears streaming down his face.

Before the interrogation was over Beckett had the answers to all her questions she cared to know and in her hands a written and signed confession. Bixler was peeved that Beckett had pushed her client so far but with so much material evidence against McClure she’d have a better chance arguing insanity anyway. A pair of uniforms escorted McClure and the lawyer out.

“So the dude hangs on to the evidence linking him incontrovertibly to the murder simply because he forgot to ditch them before he left work?” Ryan said as the group all walked out into the hall headed for the bullpen.

“Dude wasn’t exactly in his right mind, bro.”

“Yeah, but still, he knew enough to take them off, to hide them, he planned everything else…”

“There are probably a lot of other factors at work in McClure’s mind. Other things that pushed him closer to his breaking point; Miguel Garza was just the final straw,” Castle said leaning against Beckett’s desk.

“Do you think he’ll get the insanity plea?” Esposito wondered to the group.

“I think Bixler will try but if the jury is smart they’ll see that McClure planned the whole thing knowing that what he was doing was wrong,” Beckett answered.

Ryan and Esposito went to their desks doing busy work while Castle watched silently as Beckett took down and boxed all of the items tacked to the murder board . It was an unspoken Beckett ritual, one that Castle rarely got to witness as she usually did it at night after the team had gone home. He followed her when she carried and filed the box in storage.

“Any plans for lunch?”

“Um, no, not really.”

“Care for some cuisine from chez Castle?”

“Yeah, that sounds, ah, that sounds nice,” Beckett smiled warmly.

Castle made an excellent BLT and, after getting Beckett to his place and eating lunch, phase one of his plan was complete, which seemed easier than he thought it would be, getting her to agree to come over that is.

“Looks like it’s going to be really nice all day today,” he commented nonchalantly hoping to steer the conversation in the direction he wanted.

“Yeah, weatherman said it might even get up to seventy today. It would be nice to get out and enjoy it.”

“Really? Hey, we can always head up to the roof for a bit, there’s something up there I want to show you anyway,” Castle baited the line, phase two commencing.

“Sounds great, feel the sun and breathe in the air for a while before we go back to work.”

Hook, line and sinker, time to reel ‘er in for phase three. Castle led her to his private roof-top garden. Plants were arranged in a relaxing manner, flowers and herbs in pots of every size turning the area into a lovely oasis.

“You know, I think this is the first time I’ve been up here. It’s beautiful!”

“Thank you, I think so too. When things were getting rough with Gina, before the divorce, before I was smart enough to put a door on my office, I used to come up here to hide, to get a little peace and quiet just so I could write.”

“It’s really nice. Is this what you wanted to show me?”

“Not quite,” Castle pulled out an empty wicker basket from behind one of the planters. “In this garden you will find two dozen Easter eggs carefully hidden,” he handed her the basket that she hesitated for a moment to take. It worried him that maybe he crossed an line somewhere. Then she reached out and took hold of the handle of the basket. A smile lit up her face and childlike excitement made her eyes sparkle and dance with mirth. The sun in the sky was shining down on his shoulders but the brilliant warmth radiating from the woman in front of him was warmer.

“Happy hunting,” he said and she giggled (Beckett giggled?) with joy as she started her hunt. Castle watched and kept count as she found every plastic egg he had hidden. She was good at it. He had hid some of them pretty cleverly and still she took joy in finding even the hard ones.

“There’s still one more thing hidden, somewhere downstairs, that you need to find,” he told her after the last egg had been found.

Basket of plastic eggs on the counter, the new search began. It took her a little while but eventually she found the filled Easter pail. It was hidden behind one of Castle’s first print copies propped up by and easel.

“I know it doesn’t look perfect but…,” Castle started but she shushed him.

He had filled the cheerful pastel pail, a little haphazardly, with all sorts of Easter candy: Peeps, a chocolate bunny(a tastefully designed one), chocolate eggs and jellybeans. Out of instinct, because it was what she had always done, she lifted the green plastic ‘grass’ to find more jellybeans and chocolate eggs underneath. Just like she had told him how her mother used to.

“Oh, Castle,” when she looked back up at him her eyes were watery. “I…thank you seems not enough. I wish there were some way to show you how much this means to me.”

“You just did,” he said with one of his tender smiles.

“Yeah,” she sniffed, “but this, this is really thoughtful and perfect and I wish I could make it up to you.”

“You can,” he said then waited for her to look up at him quizzically, “say you’ll join us for Easter. Show me how to make Alexis a real Easter basket. Join us for the Great Egg Dyeing Contest?” That twinkle of mischief entered his eyes, his boyish charm winning her over.

The corner of her mouth quirked up in a playful smile, “you guys use your own egg dye or do you use those kits?”

“This is the Castle brood, we make our own dye, any colour you’d find in a double rainbow.”

“Well, then, Castle, you’ve got yourself some fresh competition. And just so you know,” Beckett leaned in to whisper in his ear, “I intend to win.” She turned around still carrying her Easter pail as she sauntered out of his office and toward the front door.

“Looking forward to it,” he said more to himself than her. He couldn’t control the winning grin on his face as he followed her path toward the front door. Today was a very nice day, he thought; all phases successful, mission complete.  



End file.
